The most popular workout program in the gym wasn’t built for your goals
I was working at a gym recently and one of the guys at the front desk would often ask members as they walked in “what are you hitting today?”. This is a very common question in gyms. With this questions comes the assumption that when you go to the gym, you are focusing on one muscle group.
I am here to tell you that this workout split is not for you.
Is your priority putting on muscle size? Do you workout with so much intensity that you need at least 5 days to recover? Do you love working out your legs as much as you love working out your arms?
If you answered no to all of these questions, you do not need to be working out singular muscle groups every time you’re at the gym. When you plan on doing a 5 day “bro” split, you are training like a bodybuilder without the intensity, without the proper recovery, and without the proper motivation. You are never going to see the progress you want if you don’t set yourself up for success before you step foot in the gym.
What split should you choose?
Everyone needs to be running some sort of split or program. The way to determine this is to first understand why you want to workout on the first place.
The top 4 reasons people tend to go to the gym are:
To look good
To be healthy for a long time
To be more athletic
Mental benefits
This is obviously an oversimplification of the goals someone may have when getting into working out but you should stick with a simple idea when picking out which split you want to do. Going through each of these reasons, I will give you some options on which splits work best in more detail.
1. To look good
This is usually the number one reason people want to start working out. Even if they think it isn’t, it is. So we should stop acting like it’s so wrong to want to look good sometimes.
In order to look good, we need to both build muscle and lose fat. I’ve written an article on this before that goes over how this 2 step formula is all you need to be lean.
Since losing fat is done on the pavement and in the kitchen, the amount of muscle you have will be determined by what you do in the gym.
My number one recommendation for this will be a Push/Pull/Legs (PPL) split. This split allows you to focus on a tighter set of muscle groups each workout which will provide the most stimulus and then provide you with 3-4 days of recovery. This is what is required to build muscle and will in the end create the looks and physique you are looking to achieve. With this split, as long as you are going to the gym at least 3 times per week, you will get a proper amount of stimulus each week and for any day over 3 days, you can just cycle through the loop of a push day, a pull day, and a leg day.
My second recommendation would be the bro split. You thought I’d be a hater the entire article. Well you were wrong. The bro split is amazing at one thing: building muscle. You focus on isolating each muscle group, providing a maximum stimulus, and then recovering for a long period of time. With this comes large gains in muscle. When we talk about looks, a great physique is built on the back of muscle. For all the negative things I could say about the bro split, it is fantastic at building muscle and should be reserved for those who plan on going to the gym 5 days a week.
2. To be healthy for a long time
Longevity is having a big moment. People no longer accept living to an old age but instead want to live a healthy and active life for as long as they can. I think most people would take living to 80 years old with great energy instead of living to 100 years old and your last 20 years are spent in a wheelchair or bed.
Achieving this is about preventing the natural loss of muscle (sarcopenia) and the natural loss of bone density (osteopenia) as we age.
Upon hitting age 30, we will start to naturally lose 3-8% of our muscle mass per decade. This accelerates after age 60. At age 35, a similar affect occurs in terms of our bone density. In women, the affect on bone density is about 25% higher and increases in menopause. Among 80+ year old people, falling is one of the leading causes of death. Bones are broken more easily and balance is frequently lost due to weakness in the legs and core.
Training with this idea in mind is not reserved for people who are already older. We all should want to create a muscular body with strong bones by creating a very strong set of legs and strong midsection.
My number one and only recommendation for this goal is going to be a full body split. When it comes to creating total body strength and bone density, nothing compares to focusing on lifts that challenge your entire body at once. The movement pattern of a squat or deadlift will be much more important to understand and be strong in as we age as compared to a leg extension or leg curl. A full body split allows for 2-3 days in the gym prioritizing lifts that challenge our entire bodies. Because of this, weights can be heavier building density in the bones. We don’t isolate our muscle groups but instead teach different parts of our body to work in tandem. The full body split is a no brainer for anyone looking to build a long lasting healthy body.
3. To be more athletic
Do you want to jump high, run fast, be strong, and dominate every physical opportunity? Yea, same. When you determine whether or not you want to be the type of athlete who plays rugby or tennis, your workouts in the gym don’t need to change much. Only the amount of food you eat does.
Athletic is strong. Your endurance may play a part but we aren’t discussing that in this article.
When you want to jump high, you need strong quads, strong feet and ankles, strong arms, and a strong core. This is not going to be gained through isolation movements like a leg extension or a lateral raise. This will be gained through squats, standing shoulder press, kettlebell swings, and hip thrusts.
My recommendation here is to use both a PPL and a full body split over the course of the year. Normally for those who want to be more athletic, they have a time where they want to build muscle and they have a time where they want to build coordination and explosiveness. PPL will provide the focus on muscle growth while keeping the movements athletic. Full body will develop the connection between the mind and the body (proprioception).
Running each split for 6 months each is a great way to mix it up in the pursuit of getting better in your athletic discipline. This is my personal favorite.
4. The mental benefits
If you don’t know by now, lifting weights has huge benefits for your brain. Lifting has been proven to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression while enhancing your mood. Lifting weights and improving your physique massively impacts your self esteem as well. Look good, feel good, play good.
Something that I personally feel is the increased blood flow keeps my mind energetic but focused. In the gym, when you are pushing yourself, your brain needs to both focus and push itself. It’s something that greatly helps your mind outside of the gym.
The split you need for this is the one you will stick with. I always suggest that people start with full body because it can be done 2-3 days a week and there is no skipping muscle groups.
The mental benefits come from going to the gym consistently and working out with intentionality. Having a purpose and energy when working out is all I can ever ask for.
Lifting weights can provide more benefits than you can imagine. I feel so passionately about it that I have devoted way too much time of my life to this discipline.
Regardless of what you choose to do in your life, adding some muscle and losing some fat can only add to it. It doesn’t require too much time but instead requires a little bit of care. Care and effort are all you need to have success in the gym but in life as well.
Final Thoughts
Your split is important. You should know what you’re going to do in the gym before you go. You should be excited about the workouts.
Having a plan in place keeps you accountable. When you have no idea what you’re doing, you default to the easy and comfortable.
The notion of doing single muscle groups every time in the gym is built upon a foundation of bodybuilding. We have grown so far away from this to understand that being large is no longer the most common goal from going to the gym. Being healthy, fit, athletic, and confident is the new goal.
Challenge the old ideologies and use what makes you excited about becoming the best version of yourself.
-Ian